Malaysian poultry producer Leong Hup rises on first day of trade

Reuters

May 15, 2019 6:12 PM PT

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Shares of poultry producer Leong Hup International rose as much as 8.2% on the first day of trade on Thursday, marking strong appetite for Malaysia's largest initial public offering in almost two years.

The shares hit a high of 1.19 ringgit in the first few minutes of trade after the IPO was priced at 1.10 ringgit, giving Leong Hup a market capitalisation of 4.02 billion ringgit ($963.80 million).

They pared some gains to trade at 1.13 ringgit by 0126 GMT. The benchmark stock exchange was down 0.13% on Thursday.

The company's IPO was valued at 1.03 billion ringgit ($247.00 million) at the issue price of 1.10 ringgit. If the overallotment option is fully exercised, it would raise a total of 1.2 billion ringgit.

Leong Hup had initially targeted to raise $600 million from the IPO but cut the offer size last month as investor demand softened in a choppy market. The IPO is Malaysia's first since Lotte Chemical Titan's issue in July 2017.

Leong Hup is majority-owned by the founding Lau family and also backed by private equity firm Affinity Equity Partners, both of whom will remain shareholders post-listing.

It is one of the largest fully integrated producers of poultry, eggs and livestock feed in Southeast Asia, and also operates in Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.